Getting Things Done with Your Macintosh
October 11 by Leon Ho | Productivity, Uncategorized
Jeff Porten has a great writeup on Getting Things Done and Macintosh.
Part 1 of his article Getting Things Done with Your Macintosh introduces David Allen’s Getting Things Done. He summarizes what is GTD method: collect, process, organize, review, and do. He also emphasizes the importance of list in GTD system and introduces number of list systems.
Part 2 talks about specifically on how to integrate the GTD system onto your Macintosh. He gives number of practical examples such as folder structure, ways to link stuff to tasks. Good stuff:
Linking Your Stuff to Tasks — We’ll stay with files a little longer, since so much of what we work with ends up being a file somewhere on your hard disk. If you want to be compulsively organized (and if you’re still reading this, you know you do), it’s key to be able to pull up your support files immediately when you turn to a particular task. With OmniOutliner, this is easy; just drag the file or an alias into your outline, and you’re done. What about task managers like iCal and Life Balance, which don’t allow for importing files?
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You may have noticed that iCal events and tasks have a URL field, and if you paste in a URL that you copy out of Safari, you get a nice “open this location” button when you select it again. Very handy. But you can also do this with your files, since every file on your hard disk can be “URLified” to look like this: file:///Users/jporten/Desktop/gtd%20article.rtf. The problem is that these URLs don’t follow the files when you move them to a new folder. So, I have another AppleScript script (which you can download at my site) that creates an alias and links the URL to that instead; the URL always points to the alias, and the alias points to the actual file no matter where it moves. If you need multiple files linked, then link to a folder instead that holds them all. Feel free to use the same trick with the URL field in Address Book to connect files to people.
Getting Things Done with Your Macintosh, Part 1
Getting Things Done with Your Macintosh, Part 2











Mac users who like Jeff’s write up about getting things done on their macintosh might enjoy trying out the set of applescripts I just released (and have been using for 2 years to get stuff done on my mac) called “Ready-Set-Do!” It comprehensively integrates all of one’s files and programs into David Allen’s GTD workflow. It audibly coaches users through their daily and weekly reviews, allows for quick iteration of ideas, and hyperlinks projects and actionables. I’m looking for more mac users to give the scripts a run and let me know what they think. It also has a Sync iCal ToDos plug-in for those that want that functionality.
The philosophy behind “Ready-Set-Do!” as well as the trial version can be downloaded for free from here:
http://homepage.mac.com/toddvasquez/Ready-Set-Do!/RSD%20Backstory.html
Would appreciate any feedback from anyone willing to give the scripts a run.
Todd V
Ready-Set-Do! Creator